Hungry Like the Wolf: Data centers and new power-intensive tech

The rapid growth of digital infrastructure like AI, edge computing, virtual reality and private clouds is making data centers—once an underappareciated niche—into an increasingly important commercial real estate sector. DigitalBridge CEO Marc Ganzi and CBRE’s Pat Lynch share insights on this burgeoning market.ABOUT THIS WEEK'S GUESTS:Marc GanziCEODigitalBridgeMarc C. Ganzi is the Chief Executive Officer at DigitalBridge and has been an investor and operator in the digital infrastructure sector for more than 25 years. Marc has led DigitalBridge’s transformation to become a leading global manager of digital infrastructure, managing over $70 billion in assets under management across the digital ecosystem, including cell towers, data centers, fiber, small cells and edge infrastructure.    Pat LynchGlobal Head of CBRE Data Center SolutionsPat Lynch, Executive Managing Director for CBRE’s Data Center Solutions, acts as an advisor, advocate and partner in navigating the dynamic technology needs for his clients. Pat and his team of professionals develop custom mission-critical strategies that address specific industry challenges and help meet business objectives. Through creative problem solving and transaction structuring, clients experience improved reliability and expense management, and operational efficiencies.KEY TAKEAWAYS:Digital infrastructure is an estimated $13 trillion market, according to DigitalBridge CEO Marc Ganzi; leasing and licensing agreements for fiber space resemble real estate leases.Demand for data centers is significantly outstripping supply, creating opportunities for expansion in emerging domestic and international markets.The industry is grappling with sustainability issues, particularly the effects of heavy power and water usage. This is driving a focus on renewable resources.Ganzi notes the next big trend in digital infrastructure could be network virtualization, moving toward software-defined infrastructure. One manifestation of this is the growth of private clouds, where organizations have better security and control than in the public cloud.